35% Of All Health Insurance Policies Are Bought In This Quarter. Have You Bought Yours?

Blog > Health Insurance > 35% Of All Health Insurance Policies Are Bought In This Quarter. Have You Bought Yours?

Thanks to the series of initiatives (Digital India, Make in India and many more) taken in the recent years, we’re now the largest and fastest growing open global marketplace in the world. Money is flowing like never before and the rise of Indian middle-class seems to be well-timed. But when it comes to any comprehensive social security plan, India, unfortunately has none, other than a few saving vehicles that generally work post-retirement. Indians save for the rainy day by investing in traditional vehicles like Fixed deposits, NSCs, shares etc and more often than not purchase a life insurance to take care of their family members when they won’t be there.

However, health insurance does not form a part of your financial portfolio. We tell you why you need a mediclaim policy before this year comes to a close.

You need to save tax

Research suggests that most Indians buy a health policy to save Tax. Life insurance premium typically forms a big chunk of deduction under section 80C for most Indians while filing their annual taxes.

Health Insurance premium paid gives you deduction under section 80D, and the amount of deduction was increased to Rs 25,000 for individuals and Rs 35,000 for senior citizens in the financial year 2015-16. The government realizes the importance of Health insurance and till it can afford a state sponsored health program for all, it decides to give you tax break on mediclaim.

If you haven’t yet made Health insurance a part of your tax saving investments for the year, now is a good time to do it.

You need to secure your health

The need to assess one’s health risks and its prevention rises from the important facts listed below.

Health is wealth
The maxim can’t be truer. Each visit to the doctor/hospital leaves your wallet a tad lighter, and there’s no guarantee that you won’t need the doctor again. In fact, the visits will only become more frequent as you gradually age. If you’re young, then you have elderly parents to take care of.

How do you pay for the doctor’s fee? Break your savings? Take a loan? Why not secure the inevitable expenses through health insurance?

A health policy comes at a fraction of the cost you may incur for treatment of a serious malady in a metro or tier 1 city. Keep your savings intact by investing in Health insurance.

Medical inflation and out of pocket expenditure

The quality of government-run facilities in India has always been mediocre and a matter of worry. This has resulted in the rise of number of private healthcare players, but at a price i.e. high (rising) treatment cost, making medical care expensive and unaffordable for most of the Indians. No wonder, medical inflation stands at a staggering 20 per cent!

2012 WHO's World Health Statisticsestablished almost 60% of total health expenditure in India was paid by the common man from his own pocket in 2009. Currently, it has escalated to 75 percent.

People tend to take health insurance as one of the many tools of investment, which is a good thing, but the long term benefit of a health policy is immense. Most policies available in the market come with life time renewals, and benefits range from lower premiums for no claims to increased total coverage (link to restore) to help you fight the ever rising medical inflation

Q4 is a wake-up call for many Indians when it comes to saving taxes

While buying health insurance is investing in quality life, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that in the rush of things, urban Indians end up procrastinating important life decisions. And end of financial year is the time when financial planning suddenly becomes a priority. Our internal findings confirm this theory. Nearly 35% of all health insurane policies were sold in the last quarter of 2014-15, we expect a similar trend this year too.

Quarter

% of policies sold

Q1

19%

Q2

25%

Q3

21%

Q4

35%

Total

100%

*Percentage rise in Gross Written Premium every quarter

India’s obsession with the 11th hour

While Jan/Feb show a steep rise in the sale of policies; it’s the month of March when people actually catch up to save the taxes. The chief reason attributed to this fact is the closing of the year and need to filing the tax declarations. And nearly half of all policies bought in the last quarter are bought in the month of March, i.e the year ending,

Month (s)

% of policies sold

December

7.8%

January

8.8%

February

9.6%

March

16.6%

*Percentage rise in Gross Written Premium in Jan, Feb, Mar 2014-15

There still exists a curious case of working women. They may be leading the health decisions in the family but women are yet to emerge as the health insurance buyer. Our internal research establishes that 20 per cent of the total policies sold in a year are bought by women. Interestingly, out of these 20%, nearly 43.7 per cent women have bought the health cover for their family.

It’s a surprising fact especially in the urban areas where there’s been a consistent increase in numbers of working women, they still abstain from buying health insurance even for tax benefits.